16 Royal Rangers were slated for the Big Sam's Throne easy backpack camp on top of the Throne event.

As Friday night rolled around the calls came in and soon we were down to 11 RR going.  Then Saturday morning the final count was 10 Royal Rangers "Ready" for anything. 

We took 3 vehicles there and arrived at Sam's Throne at about 1:30 pm.  The boys were glad to because the road was curvy and up and up and up.  Finally we made it. 

We made a quick hike down to the Catacomb by the trail of many times, to see if it would be possible to lower backpacks or carry them or what to do.  We then decided to hike back the trail of many times to reach the catacombs again and day hiked over to the Throne.  The boys really enjoyed the challenge of the catacomb. It's a trick and it's fun and challenging.  Along the Rock wall of 90 feet they climbed in and around the cracks and rock and poked around and explored going in one big crack coming out the other side of the big crack.   One would have to go through it to believe it.  Then we headed over to the Throne.

Arriving at the Throne we found a plaque with a mans name on it.  Just around from that we found a cross with John 3:16 on it and stopped and showed respect and talked about the life and death that took place there.  Then just around the rock was the throne stairs.  It was a climb at the top and we arrived safely on top of Sam's Throne.  As we explored the ooooh's and awes of this place the boys wanted to camp up there.    The ice storm from last winter at this time had left a bunch of wood up there. 

So we bouldered back to the catacomb and climbed back up top at about 5:30 pm.  Then put on our backpacks and tromped down the hill to find no level spots... so we backpacked up the hill to the top about 600 feet from the vehicles and declared it camp.  Setup tents.  Dragged up a pile of downed limbs and Joshua made fire with his metal match and cotton balls and pine needles.  We even used a couple of cotton balls with Vaseline smeared into them for a fire starter.  Everything was wet so we had to coax it and nurse it for a little while then we piled on the wood.

About 6:00 pm we were all busy cooking, steaks, bacon, chicken, pork chops and hot coco and other good stuff.  At 8:30 we had our Council fire were the boys were talked to about being thankful.  For example I am thankful for the mess to clean up after a party because it means I have friends.  We then discussed things we were thankful for even if it was a inconvience for us as well.  Around 10:30 I headed off to my little home away from home and put on dry clothes and climbed into my sleeping bag.  I could hear the laughter and talking and soon it got quite as we all nodded off to sleep.  5 tents for Jesus out in the icy woods. 

Sunday morning I could hear Commander Dave breaking up some limbs and kindling the fire.  I thought it would be really nice to have a good hot fire to get up to and it wasn't long before I could hear the fire popping and cracking and put on my outer layers and boots and said Good Morning David!  It was a beautiful day.  About 36 for a high and 30 for a low.  Most of the snow around the fire area was gone and we had a nice wooden bench made out of trees to sit on and cook breakfast. 

Time was running out so one group headed back and the other 8 of us did some more exploring and boldering.  Then headed back to Springfield back in time for a nap and then to the Super Bowl Party at Rangers.  Click on a picture to get a larger view.